The present invention is concerned with a machine for packing groups of containers, preferably bottles, within open cases.
The present machine is designed to place a selected group of bottles within the confines of a shipping case or container for packing and shipping purposes.
Lightweight plastic disposable bottles for beverages or other fluids are currently becoming popular in the bottling industry. Such bottles are easily damaged in handling. The bottles are not easily packed horizontally into cases. It is more desirable to move the bottles vertically. This process has also been somewhat difficult because of the size and weight of the bottles. The lightweight bottles will not fall freely and predictably. It therefore becomes desirable to provide some form of case packing machine that will automatically load groups of such bottles vertically into cases while maintaining full control over the bottles.
It is often desirable to pack cases with bottles in inverted positions (open ends down) when there is chance that debris may fall into the otherwise open bottles. The disclosed machine will pack bottles automatically into cases and is selectively operable to invert groups of bottles prior to packing.